


all that I have

by congratsyouvegrownasoul



Series: Nina/Oleg fix it fic [2]
Category: The Americans (TV 2013)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Kid Fic, Short & Sweet, with a little smidge of Soviet political angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 10:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16262033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/congratsyouvegrownasoul/pseuds/congratsyouvegrownasoul
Summary: Moscow, 1991."What will we have left?"... "We have each other."





	all that I have

It seems to Nina, sometimes, that Oleg is all frantic energy, as if he’s too nervous to stop, in case the whole world comes crashing down. He’s going to be forty next year, and the moment he’d noticed a slight thickening around his middle he’d taken up running, and biking, and anything else that gets him out and moving. He’s always trying to get her to go jogging with him in Zaryadye Park on the weekends. She thinks, in part, he likes to see the city, all of Moscow milling around him, the endless whisper of other people’s lives. The Kremlin looks peaceful, from the park. Just a red wall, and the bright golden tops of old churches peeping over the wall. You could almost forget how important it is—just a building, nothing to do with all of their past, and all of their future.

She has to laugh, sometimes, when her coworkers poke fun at their own couch potato husbands, coming home and flopping down to watch cartoons with the kids. In her own home, it seems like the news is always on, and Oleg doesn’t sit still even then. He leans forward, eyes bright with anxiety and interest, scanning the state broadcasts for what’s hidden between the lines. Arkady comes over sometimes—he’s been recalled, replaced by a younger, softer Rezident. He and Oleg chain-smoke and talk about politics, shouting past each other and gesticulating wildly. Nina breaks in with a joke, a smile, a story about old times or about the children. It placates them for a while, but the tension is always there.

Today, it’s just the four of them, on a Friday night. Anya’s started kindergarten this year, and comes home every week with a folder full of art projects and spelling tests to show her mama and papa. Alyosha’s eight, looking forward to becoming a Young Pioneer, and wants to be a biologist. His ant farm lurks on a bookshelf in his bedroom—Nina fears one day he’ll knock it over, sending insects scurrying throughout their apartment and crawling into the crevices of their fancy living room furniture.

When he comes home from work, Oleg kisses Nina, exclaims over Anya’s top marks on her latest quiz, and promises Alyosha they’ll go to the zoo Sunday morning. Tonight, though, the General Secretary will be giving an address, so Oleg wolfs his dinner and waits expectantly in front of the television.

Nina switches it off, and he lets out a little yelp of protest.

“Gorbachev doesn’t speak until eight o’clock,” she says. “Besides, don’t you get sick of it all?”

“Yes, I’m sick of it all. Of course I am! I’m sick of coups and parts of the country voting to break off and leave. I’m sick of waiting for the other shoe to drop and wondering if the government will collapse tomorrow.”

He reaches out, pulls her down on the couch next to him, earnestly clasping her hand in his.

“I can’t just sit here idly and pretend I don’t care! Our country, our ideals—they’re all withering away. What will we have left?”

Nina leans close to him, ruffles his hair and kisses his cheek. She feels him quiver slightly at her touch, then relax into her.

“We have each other. We have two wonderful children. We have a nice apartment and good jobs. Any country needs engineers, and hopefully any country would want theater directors. I have more than I ever could have imagined, Oleg. People survive.”

He sighs, nuzzling up against her neck.

“I suppose you’re right.”

His voice is muffled against her skin.

“I won’t turn the television on again until 7:55. You’re much more interesting.”

He kisses her, putting his hands on her waist.

“You guys are gross,” Alyosha says disdainfully, sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of ice cream. “I’m gonna go feed my ants.”

**Author's Note:**

> All the backstory for how Nina and Oleg ended up here is in my previous, much longer and more detailed fic. Alyosha is the baby Nina is pregnant with in the first story, and I kind of liked the idea of her going back to work in an artistic profession. This is just a short little snapshot of what their family life would look like, and also examining their attitudes as the Soviet Union begins to fall apart. I hope to fill in more in between the two stories in the future!


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